Serita Ann Jakes

For ten years, Claudia Campbell has lived with the memories of her best friend dying in her arms. Claudia's husband, who just happens to be the assistant D.A., is tired of watching his wife hurting and decides that solving the murder might bring the closure that she needs to heal. In the meantime, Casio Hightower, Claudia's high school boyfriend, is having problems of his own that he blames on the trauma of that night. While it's obvious that there are deeper issues involved, Casio thinks worming his way into (and helping solve) the new investigation will help him win back his current love.

We not only read the story from those involved in the modern-day story, but we are also privy to the thoughts of B.J. Remington during her last few minutes of life. It's a interesting way to tell the story, and it makes B.J. a person, a part of the story, rather than just "the teacher who died", as she might have been if we didn't learn about her thought and feelings.

This is not a light-hearted book. There is a little bit of humor in the relationship between Casio and Victor Campbell, but this is a book about domestic abuse, betrayal, adultery, and murder. It's also a book about forgiveness, love, and hope, but most of that comes at the end of the book. Speaking of which, I have to say that the ending was shocking and completely unexpected. (No peeking. It really will ruin the book for you.)

I received this book free from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review.… (mer)

This book is setup to talk to teenage girls about….well being teenage girls. It covers all the hot points that young girls struggle with in life and shows how accepting God into your life can make you stronger and never alone. Everyone is beautiful in God’s eyes, whether you’ve done right or wrong, popular or not.

This book has an interesting setup. It has a fictional fairy tale story, much like Cinderella. It has Serita’s real life stories she’s experienced in relation to each chapters topic, quizzes to better understand yourself, scripture relating to the topic and God’s answer to the situation, plus a music playlist for each chapter!

This book is wonderful, I wish there had been a book like this when I was a teenager. Even though I’m through that phase of life I still clearly remember how hard it was and had all of these situations come up one way or another!

I love how it covers a wide array of topics: feeling left out, fitting in, loving your family (blended families especially), sex-saying no, things to remember if you decide to say yes (pregnancy, STD’s, etc.), difference between being friendly and flirting; giving the wrong impression.

All these topics and many more are centered around God, His forgiveness if you do wrong, being there for you if you are lonely, to give you strength to make the right decision and most importantly accepting you for who you are.

This book can serve a lot of purpose. A girl could use it on her own like a diary for inner growth and reflection, read it with your mom or other older female in your life, they’ve been there and can help you relate to somethings maybe you don’t understand yet, or as a group study through church or other youth organizations.

Overall this book is very well written and extremely relatable. I would recommend this book to anyone with a current or future teenager, in fact already have! It’s currently available at amazon.com and other book sites.

Disclaimer: I was given this book from Bethany House Publishing in exchange for my honest review.… (mer)

A difficult story to tell; tragedy, murder, secrets, abuse and PTSD. The author did a good job of creating a story with such mystery that I couldn't figure it out until the very end. Claudia Campbell is haunted by memories of a 10 year old murder she witnessed while on the bus going home from a football game. In front of her eyes her teacher was shot and she eventually died. Now her husband is trying to solve this 10 year old mystery of who shot this person. I like how the back cover states, " . . . the Campbells . . . teeter on the brink of losing everything, will they be able to discover that what begins at the crossing ends at the cross?" A hard story to read because of the brokenness in so many people's lives.… (mer)

I received the ARC of this book from Library Thing in exchange for my honest review.

Usually books of this size I can eat up in no time; not so with this one. It took me far too long to read the whole book, and not because I am far beyond my teen years. I enjoy YA and MG and Picture books; my own writing centers around those genres, so that wasn’t the problem.

Serita Ann Jakes created a modern day Cinderella and used that as a jump off point for each chapter. That in itself was okay, but sometimes there was not much connection to the idea throughout the rest of the chapter.

The book begins with glowing letters of praise about the author from her two daughters. From there she sets up a hopeful scenario for the reader, beginning with a quiz of self-discovery and giving results to help the reader see herself as one of Disney’s princesses. Unfortunately, she didn’t follow through the same way with all the quizzes she created. In the same vein, she included short testimonies but it was puzzling to see where they were placed when a few didn’t have anything to do with the chapter they accompany.

Here are the chapter titles:

Princess, why are you hiding?
But everyone is invited!
Parents just don’t understand?
The power to choose
Is that any way for a princess to act?
We are family
A word of truth
Wash off those cinders!
Dress the part
Face those fears
You fit right in
In the powder room
Where the boys are
Where did the time go?
Kick off your shoes
Sweet dreams really do come true
A prince is waiting for you

Reading those titles makes one think this is going to be such a great read! It is and it isn’t. Although the message is there it didn’t carry through smoothly with the idea presented at the beginning, as if the writing of this book was a little rushed. It felt as if the connection with God is interrupted time and again.

Although there are a few other statements made that were amiss, there is one suggestion I was appalled to read, where the author presented a scenario about God and asked the teen reader to give her opinion. First of all it is a moot point which cannot possibly have an answer. It’s as if the author didn’t understand the holiness of God in even suggesting such a scenario could exist. It had no place in this book at all and didn’t add to it in any positive way to affirm the reader.

After reading The Princess Within for Teens, perhaps a young reader will come away with hope of her place in God and will not even notice the gaps in the presentation. Serita Jakes’ intent is to encourage her, to help her stand in the midst of the stresses and problems that each day may bring to her. If this is what the young reader is looking for, although it could use a little work, she will probably find The Princess Within for Teens to be a good beginning. The drawback is the subtitle of this book is Discovering Your Royal Inheritance and there was not much connection and teaching or encouragement in that aspect.

Serita Ann Jakes‘ The Princess Within for Teens follows her adult edition of The Princess Within.… (mer)